As a high school teacher and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and Operation Iraqi Freedom, I often spoke with my students when their curiosities arose concerning the military and a possible decision to join. There were often those students who felt called to serve and others who knew college directly after high school would not be the best route for them.

After a few months of introspection during his senior year, one of my students decided to join the Navy. His parents were unable to attend his enlistment, so I took him to the Military Entrance Processing Station to watch him swear into the military in the same ceremony I had engaged in nearly 20 years prior. When joining the armed forces of the United States, enlistees raise their right hands and perform the Oath of Enlistment, the first line of which struck me as I watched my student stand in front of the U.S. flag: “I [name] do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…”